St. Francis
Retreat
Center
May Offerings
"The spiritual life does not remove us from the world
but leads us deeper into it." Henri J.M. Nouwen
Online Retreats
Suggested donation is listed on retreat description;
Don't let financial hardship keep you from participating.
If you need a partial or full scholarship,
please email mepkinguestmaster@gmail.com to register.

Mindfulness itself is the basic ability to be fully present and aware of where we are...what we are doing...
...It anchors our focus aiding in
calmness and clarity.  

Introduction to
Mindfulness Meditation:
Would this Practice
Benefit You? 
an online lecture
with Kathleen Cassels
May 3, 2021
7-8:30 pm Eastern Time
suggested donation: $20
Kathleen Cassels is a certified teacher of Mindfulness Meditation through Tibet House US. She offers weekly and monthly mindfulness meditation classes. A native New Yorker and graduate of Fordham University, she has had a career in many fields including the corporate world, restaurant business, and real estate.
Spiritual Retreats at Mepkin Abbey for over 15 years call her to gratefully give back to Mepkin and the community. Over the years she has volunteered in the Clare Booth Luce Library and at the annual Crèche Festival. Currently, Kathleen is a Mepkin Abbey Zip Code Contemplative group convener as well as a docent. Wishing to provide the Mepkin community with another tool in their contemplative journey, she hopes providing a mindfulness meditation practice may be of benefit to all. 

Respond to God’s invitation to refresh, renew,
and deepen your relationship
with God through an Ignatian Retreat…

Directed Online
Ignatian Retreat
with Donna Meyer, Mary Pat Barth,
& Ray Horn
May 14-16, 2021

Suggested donation: $200
Meet the Leaders
Mary Pat Barth has been involved in Ignatian retreats & spirituality as a Chaplain at the College of the Holy Cross, Georgetown, and Duke Universities for the past 30 years. She has led Ignatian Retreats at retreat centers in North & South Carolina, Pennsylvania, New York, and Louisiana as well as parishes in NC. Mary Pat received her spiritual direction training in Chicago, and she regards the experience of companioning women and men on Ignatian retreats and in her interfaith spiritual direction practice as sacred privileges. She holds two Master’s Degrees from Jesuit Universities and experienced the 30-day Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola in Los Altos, California. She is a member of Spiritual Directors International and resides in Wilmington, North Carolina.
A lifelong journey led Raymond Horn to this sacred ministry of holy listening, a deep knowing that "everything belongs." Raymond serves as a spiritual and retreat director formed in the Ignatian tradition and lived the 30-day Ignatian Exercises at Eastern Point in Gloucester, MA. Trained at the Mercy Center in Madison, CT, he attended their School of Spirituality and their Practicum for Spiritual Direction where he was certified in 2006. He is a member of Spiritual Directors International and received a BA in Communications from Pace University in 1982.
Raymond is an active member of the St. Vincent Paul Society; the National Alliance on Mental Illness where he serves as a facilitator and trainer and the Lay Associate Community with The Passionists.
Raymond and his wife Susan have two grown sons and three grandsons. They "rewired" to South Carolina in 2012 where they care for their parents and their four-legged canine, Tilly.
Donna Meyer has a diverse nursing background and her attraction to spirituality led her to study theology. The combination of these two disciplines has convinced her that each person’s story is sacred and God meets people where they are. She incorporates Ignatian Spirituality in her practice and has accompanied people through the Spiritual Exercises using the 19th Annotation. In addition to her nursing education, she received her BA in Psychology and Religion from Smith College, Northampton, MA, a Master of Divinity from Weston Jesuit School of Theology, and a Certificate for Spiritual Direction Supervision from Together in the Mystery. Donna recently retired from Bon Secours St. Francis Health System where she was Director of Mission, Ministry Formation, and Spiritual Care. She is a member of Spiritual Directors International, Phi Beta Kappa, and the Associate Community for the Sisters of Bon Secours. 

Adult Faith
for the 21st Century
an online event with Diarmuid O'Murchu
Saturday, May 22
9:30 am-noon Eastern Time and 2:00 pm-4:00 pm Eastern Time
suggested donation: $50
Diarmuid O'Murchu, a member of the Sacred Heart Missionary Order, and a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin Ireland, is a social psychologist most of whose working life has been in social ministry, predominantly in London, UK. In that capacity he has worked as a couple's counsellor, in bereavement work, AIDS-HIV counselling, and, in more recent times, with homeless people and refugees. As a workshop leader and group facilitator he has worked in Europe, USA, Canada, Australia, The Philippines, Thailand, India, and in several African countries, facilitating programmes on Adult Faith Development. His best known books include Quantum Theology (1996 - revised in 2004),  Ancestral Grace (2008), Jesus in the Power of Poetry (2009), Christianity's Dangerous Memory (2011), In the Beginning was the Spirit (2012),  Incarnation: A New Evolutionary Threshold (2017), Beyond Original Sin: Recovering Humanity's Creative Urge (2018), When the Disciple Comes of Age (2019).   Doing Theology in and Evolutionary Way,2021 He now lives in Dublin, Ireland.